The relationship between classroom environment and students' aggressive behaviour in Keumbu zone, Kisii County, Kenya

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Abstract

The major purpose of this study was to find out the relationship between classroom environment and students' aggressive behaviour. To achieve this, adolescents attending high school, specifically those in form three were investigated. An ex-post facto research design was used in the study. The respondents were drawn from three secondary schools in Keumbu Zone, Keumbu Division in Kisii District. Simple random sampling method was used to select the three secondary schools for the study.
The study subjects consisted of 180 form three students of which 90 were boys and the other 90 were girls. The instrument for the study was a students' questionnaire. The questionnaire was an Aggression Inventory with questions touching on students' relationship with their teachers, with fellow students, class size and gender in relation to the manifestation of aggressive behaviour. The aim was to determine whether these variables can cause or promote aggressive behaviour in the classroom. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to test the relationships that existed between the variables while t-test was used to test the difference in expression of aggression among students. The computer software programme SPSS Version 12 for Windows was used to analyze data.
The results of the study indicated that teacher-student and student-student relationships lead to classroom aggression. The study also found out that classroom congestion does not lead to classroom aggression while there were gender differences in the manifestation of aggressive behaviour. As a result of high enrolment students were not able to receive individual attention from the teachers. The recommendations of the study were that head teachers should enrol students in accordance with regulations of the Ministry of Education for ease of maintaining discipline and class control, and teachers have to be decisive in dealing with fights in the classroom.
Suggestions on further research; since the research was done in rural Kenya schools the same can be done in urban schools. Secondly, a comparative study of public and private schools. can be done to find out whether students in public secondary schools are more aggressive than those in private schools. Lastly, other factors can be studied to find out if they cause aggressive behaviour in the classroom